bm@jeffvandermeer does not call it “#incluing” in his Wonderbook – instead, he makes a distinction between worldview and storyview. Ultimately, it’s the same thing: worldview is everything that you, the writer, know ahead of time; storyview is what the characters know; you build up storyview by choosing *what* information you’re going to share–and *when*. *When* is the difference between thin, well-defined stratigraphic layers, that leave us wanting more, and one thick wall of text that’s weary on the eyes.
If you’ve read literally any sci-fi story published in recent memory, you’ve seen #incluing at work. Here’s the opening paragraph to #ChinaMieville's #Embassytown:
> The children of the embassy all saw the boat land. Their teachers and shiftparents had had them painting it for days. One wall of the room had been given over to their ideas. It’s been centuries since any voidcraft vented fire, as they imagined this one doing, but it’s a tradition to represent them with such trails.
Between tell-all and tell-nothing, we need what Angela Naimou called “telling details:”
> [Details] otherwise deemed insignificant but for their ability to make some bigger subject memorable.
- "Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, Microfiction"
Depending on the project, our word budget might be economy-class. Everyone wants to be worldsmiths like Brandon Sanderson or George R. R. Martin, writing great whopping worlds of epic scale. But lest we forget, Martin started out in the 1970s selling short stories; watch any of Sanderson’s writing lectures, and you’d be wise to take note of the things he’s telling you not to do*.
Can you tell a short fantasy story without it becoming a crash course on how the world works? Say, 3000 words or less? I think you can, if you make use of a similar (but not identical) technique to telling details – “#incluing:”
https://web.archive.org/web/20111119145140/http:/papersky.livejournal.com/324603.html
> [T]he process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information.
Thud: Half a Crown & Incluing
Words: 1580 Total words: 30671 Files: 4 Tea: Soleil du Pacific Music: Bach's Orchestral Suites 1&2 RSI: Not so bad Reason for stopping: End of chapter 10! Which when you think how long chapter 9 took, is quite impressive! . This is totally a word I made up when I was fifteen, but other people …